Right Side and Wrong Side in Crochet
By Rachel Choi – 11 CommentsWhen crocheting your projects you may have come across the terms right side and wrong side. In a nut shell, right side refers to the side that is the front of the work. Wrong side refers to the back side of the work. The right and wrong side of your project is determined by what the designer wants the project to look like.
If you are working in rows, each side of your work will look the same if you are turning after each row and crocheting the same stitches, so it will not matter which side is the right side or wrong side. If you are working in the round without turning, typically (but not always – it depends on how you hold your work), the side that faces you when you are crocheting is the right side.
In crochet patterns, the designer may indicate the first row of the right side. The right side is often the side that faces you when you are working the first row or round in a pattern. You may want to use a stitch marker to mark the right side of your work.
Personally, I don’t like to make a big deal about which side is the right side or wrong side. Most of the time it really doesn’t matter. Just have fun crocheting!
That is one of the reasons why I like crocheting more than knitting; it doesn’t matter so much which which side is the ‘right side’. Unless of course you have a design on the front then it makes a difference.
i love you blog rachell
Try being left-handed and doing charted color work…it is on the “wrong side”!
I have always liked the side that faces me when I crochet. I made a tablecloth, more like a large doily that is 4 ft in diameter that my mum has placed under the glass on her table. Being crocheted in the round the same side always faced me. However she has it “upside down†as far as I would have put it but she loves it that way. So – each to their own – I’d rather have it the way she like it – it is NOT mine!!
Two things….
1. I’m left handed and I just follow the pattern reading the instructions as if I were holding the hook in my right hand. I’m not sure I’ve ever come up against something that didn’t work because I did left-handed. Maybe I’m so used to compensating , I just don’t notice anymore? At any rate, if something is “on the wrong side,” I probably turn the whole thing inside out (like a tapestry purse in the round for instance).
2. When I teach my crochet students, I have them leave a tail dangling, count that as row 1 and the right side UNLESS the pattern tells me something else.
Just thought I’d share how it works with me.
Happy Crocheting.
Jeannie
Thank you so much Rachel!!!!! Wow, you are good. I will come back next time I have Qs about crocheting. I LOVE CROCHET! Fondly, Devy
[…] RS (see The Right Side and The Wrong Side in Crochet for more info on this) facing you, fold bottom of purse up, approx. 3 inches above and below the […]
I agree with jeannie i too crochet left-handed and i really don’t notice until someone says something to me.
Thanks so much for these tutorials to go along with your patterns! Not only are the patterns SUPER easy to follow, but if (where I am still a beginner) I need help with anything you have provided links to pages like this. I really appreciate it! Thanks again!
Your help was the best so far, that I have found.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I have been crocheting for years and could never figure out the difference between FS and WS!!! So thank you for helping me figure this out!!!